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Tuesday, October 30, 2007

I had my eye on a special treat...

It is time again for another edition of the Weekly Wednesday Treat Day report - how lucky are we that this Wednesday just happens to fall on Halloween?! Of course we had to do something fun and a little creepy for the co-workers, so Jeff will be bringing a basket of these Butterfinger Eyeballs tomorrow.

If you remember when we talked about the Buckeyes awhile ago, you will already have an idea about what is inside. Fairly similar with the base of them being butter, confectioners' sugar and creamy peanut butter, these eyeballs are studded with an extra special treat of chopped up Butterfinger candy bars!

The balls come together in a snap - when you add the confectioners' sugar, the dough will be fairly dry, but keep mixing as it will slowly absorb into the peanut butter and you will be left with a non-sticky dough that holds together well and is easy to roll into balls. I used a tablespoon cookie scoop to scoop out the dough, but only filled it about three-quarters full - this way I could crank them out and they would all be about 1" in diameter. The dough is a little soft after rolling, so to help facilitate coating them in white chocolate, they are first placed in the freezer until they are firm.

Because you're working with pretty cold dough while dipping in the chocolate, it would be a little tough to keep tempered chocolate in check and at the right temperature throughout the process. This method uses a little shortening when you melt the chocolate to keep it smooth and fluid. After you dip a couple balls in the chocolate, you form the "pupil" of the eyeball where the toothpick was - to do this, press a candy or whatever your heart desires into the spot before the chocolate has set. We decided to just use Reese's pieces. For the bloodshot effect, use a tube of red decorating gel to make the lines around the candy pupils.

Peanut butter lovers beware - these treats are highly addictive with their rich, soft and intensely peanut flavored centers. The chopped Butterfingers inside added extra pizazz to take these to a new level - I am so using this trick next time I make the other buckeye recipe!

While we were finishing up the eyeballs tonight, I tossed a few sweet potatoes that I rubbed with olive oil, salt and pepper into the oven to bake. I needed them to have enough time to cook and cool down so we could make these Twice-Baked Sweet Potatoes for dinner.

While the potatoes were cooling, we sautéed a few links of chorizo that were sliced into half-moons until they were crisp. The potatoes were finally cool enough to handle at this point, so we set the chorizo aside and scooped out the flesh from the potatoes - we left just enough around the sides and bottom to support the shell. In the same pan we cooked the meat in, we warmed up and mashed together the tender sweet potato with broth, butter, pumpkin, honey, garlic, a chipotle pepper with some of the adobo sauce it was packed in, bright orange zest, fresh squeezed orange juice and grated nutmeg.

We then mounded the orange-tinted mixture into the potato skins and scattered the tops with the crispy chorizo and a scattering of smoked cheddar cheese. The potatoes then go under the broiler just long enough to melt the cheese - they are finished with a sprinkling of thinly sliced green onions.These filling potato boats had a smooth mildly-sweet filling, yet it was well balanced by the savory and smoky heat from the chipotle in adobo. I loved the idea of tossing the mashed pumpkin in with the sweet potatoes to bulk up the mixture - while I don't think you could pick out the pumpkin flavor-wise, we did think it helped with the creamy texture of the mashed filling. I was happily surprised that the pungency of the orange broke through the potato flavor, yet it was not overwhelming in the least - the clean sweetness helped to cut through the heavier chunks of chorizo on top. The smoky cheese was a nice touch, but I think you could get away with using your favorite cheddar on top if you don't feel like splurging.

When you make things like these sweet potatoes, do you serve them with anything? A salad would probably round it out nicely--no need, really, for a whole separate grain or anything. My plate always just looks a little weird with essentially one thing on it. I think it's just me, I feel the same way about quiche or lasagna.

these tasty looking tid bits have now haunted me for 24 hours. I went to get holloween candy and bought butterfingers thinking this would get those eyeballs out of my head. Wrong. We didnt have a single trick or treater. Not one! So I have a full (o.k. maybe not completly full) bag of candy. I think I'll make them and freeze them for the holidays! When I get something in my head-It will haunt me till I make them. Glad the weekend is right aroung the corner!